According to the Twitter account rovert (occasionally breaks stories), is reporting that AJ Styles was moved to SmackDown because he had some issues with Paul Heyman who was the Executive Director of RAW at the time. Heyman was recently replaced by Bruce Prichard, who is now running both shows.
Now if you are wondering what those issues were, well that depends on what version of the story you believe. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer stated that Styles’ problem was actually due to Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows being fired, while rovert claimed it was because Styles’ and Heyman couldn’t get along.
Rovert’s report:
“I’ve heard a couple of versions of the story but it is all basically the same thing. AJ Styles had a horrible time on Raw. Him and Heyman didn’t get along & he couldn’t handle the banter as the locker room would make fun of him and his politics/conspiracy theories.”
Dave Meltzer:
“Actually the reason was that he was furious that Gallows & Anderson were fired. Blamed Heyman. Classic case of JR/JJ/Laurinaitis syndrome. Vince is the one who made the decision but I suppose he felt Heyman could have fought him on it. So he wanted to go to the side where the guy in charge isn’t fighting Vince on something like that either.”
I’ve heard a couple of versions of the story but it is all basically the same thing. AJ Styles had a horrible time on Raw. Him and Heyman didn’t get along & he couldn’t handle the banter as the locker room would make fun of him and his politics/conspiracy theories.
— SoDuTw (@SoDuTw) June 13, 2020
